[Eduard Boeckmann--scientist, inventor and benefactor]

Abstract

Eduard Boeckmann (1849-1927) left a lasting legacy in Norway and in America. His scientific career started when as a medical student he won the Skjelderup gold medal for a study of the tonsils. In Bergen he presented his thesis, an experimental study dealing with the cause of keratitis, which affected many patients with leprosy. Later he published vigorously from his medical practice. In St. Paul, Minnesota, he constructed a steam autoclave based on principles that became fundamental in later autoclave technique. His autoclave was put into industrial production. In his own laboratory he worked with improvement and safe sterilization of catgut, and catgut was produced in St. Paul for 59 years, till 1960. He donated income from the catgut production to a fund for a medical library, today the Boeckmann Library of the United Hospital in St. Paul. Boeckmann had a high reputation as a doctor. His American patients were first of all Norwegian settlers in the north-western states. Both in Bergen and in St. Paul he was highly active in the professional associations.